April 13, 2011

Thursday, 13 April 1911

Scott at last made a start for Cape Evans at nine in the morning, after three more days' delay due to bad weather. "Party consisted of self, Bowers, P.O. Evans, Taylor, one tent," he wrote, "[Lt.] Evans, Gran, Crean, Debenham, and Wright, second tent. Left Wilson in charge at Hut Point with Meares, Forde, Keohane, Oates, Atkinson, and Cherry-Garrard." Scott reckoned that a new route could be found along the base of Mt. Erebus to the north; the dogs and ponies would have to wait to go back the usual way over the sea ice to Cape Evans.

"All gave us a pull up the ski slope; it had become a point of honour to take this slope without a 'breather.' I find such an effort trying in the early morning, but had to go through with it." [2]

Their way led past Castle Rock, northeast of Hut Point, and on to Hutton Cliffs, within sight of Cape Evans. They had to lower themselves and the loaded sledges by Alpine rope down these cliffs, which at one point dropped a sheer 24 feet (7.3 m).

"It was a good piece of work getting everything down safely," Evans later wrote, "and I admired Scott's decision to go over; a more nervous man would have fought shy because once down to the sea ice there was little chance of our getting back and we had to fight our way forward to Cape Evans somehow." [3]

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About this page

Commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Amundsen and Scott expeditions to the South Pole.

Scott's route

Amundsen's route

A Note on Dates

When the Fram crossed the International Date Line on the way South, Amundsen did not drop a day from his calendar. The Norwegian diaries from mid-January 1911 to late January 1912 thus were on "Framheim time", dated one day later than they should have been: that is, according to Greenwich Mean Time instead of local time. Amundsen noted this specifically in his entry for the Pole itself, headed "Friday 15 December (really 14th)". No little confusion arises in published sources as a result, and doubtless a number of inconsistencies appear on this page. (See the entry for 10 January 1911 for further information.)

Dates are here adjusted to one day earlier than written in the Norwegian diaries, for entries between 10 January 1911 and late January 1912. Bibliographic citations are as in the published sources.